Would people do this for an Android? Photo: Roman Czarnomski
It sounds like some kind of crazy game show scenario for a future Apple TV+ show: Would you dive into freezing cold water to retrieve an iPhone? And how new would that iPhone have to be for you to consider it worth your while?
In fact, it describes a real-life iPhone rescue mission that took place recently in Victoria, Canada, when Roman Czarnomski dived into the freezing harbor to retrieve his 2018-era iPhone XS. Czarnomski described the experience as “refreshing.”
Microsoft Office 2021 for Mac will include new versions of Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. And OneNote too. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Microsoft on Thursday committed itself to releasing Microsoft Office 2021 for Mac and Windows. This is a one-payment version of Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and OneNote. It’s separate from the Office 365 subscription service.
The Dragon in Apple TV+‘s Luck will have a very famous voice. Photo: Apple TV+/Skydance Animation
News that Apple TV+ bought the rights to Luck from Skydance Animation only broke Wednesday, and there’s already word that screen legend Jane Fonda will take a major role in the film.
Expect big and little iPad models at the Apple March event. Artists Concept: Cult of Mac
iPad fans should mark March 16 on their calendars. Apple will reportedly unveil faster iPad Pro models, a significantly redesigned iPad mini and AirTags item-location trackers at an event on that date.
Previous leaks already spilled many details about these upcoming devices. Now Korea’s Economic Daily News reports that Apple will take the wraps off these products on March 16. This is expected to be a virtual event broadcast to the public.
Chromecast with Google TV is getting a version of the Apple TV app. Photo: Google
It’s now possible to watch Apple’s streaming service on the Chromecast with Google TV, a redesigned model of this video dongle that debuted in 2020. A version of the free Apple TV application launched Thursday for this accessory. It brings access to series like Ted Lasso and movies like Wolfwalkers.
Tony Walker's setup centers on a 2020 iMac. Note the 2nd-gen iPod at upper left. Photo: Tony Walker
Tony Walker has been an Apple user since 2003. As a college student in his early 20s, he did his classwork on a 12-inch PowerBook G4 and a 3rd generation iPod during downtime at his graveyard-shift job.
Things have changed a little almost two decades later.
And you thought 5G was impressive! Photo: Qualcomm
The iPhone 12 was Apple’s first 5G iPhone, ushering in the start of a new era of high-speed connectivity. But Apple’s already gearing up for 6G technology, even if it knows that it’s many, many years away.
As noted in a new report from Bloomberg, Apple has started posting jobs ads for wireless system research engineers who could help Apple develop and prepare for the next, next generation of cellular connectivity.
These roles are based in Silicon Valley and San Diego. Early suggestions regarding 6G speculate that it could be 100x faster than 5G.
Del Yocam (center) chats with Steve Jobs. Photo: Del Yocam
Long before Tim Cook brought his operations wizardry to Apple, Del Yocam lent his logistical prowess to Cupertino. Apple’s first chief operating officer, he helped transform the company from a chaotic, scrappy startup into a streamlined manufacturing powerhouse.
He also served as an early mentor to Steve Jobs, the young Apple co-founder who sometimes seemed out of his depth in 1979.
“When I first got to know him, he was lost,” Yocam told Cult of Mac. “He was no longer involved in the Apple II and no one wanted him around, especially management. He didn’t care about money at that time. He was like an orphan, living away from home.”
In many ways, Yocam was the proto-Tim Cook, a manufacturing and operations specialist who helped transform a dysfunctional startup into a massive, moneymaking leader of the early PC industry. He also helped take the rapidly growing company international.
Yocam deserves more credit for helping build Apple than history has so far accorded him. He was one of the main players at a crucial point in Cupertino’s history.
Yocam, now 76, recently talked with Cult of Mac about Apple’s early days. In this exclusive interview, he discusses his friendship and working relationship with Jobs, Apple’s challenging, fascinating, and sometimes malodorous co-founder.
He also reveals new details about Jobs’ tearful ouster from Apple — and how Jobs later offered him an amazing job, only to revoke it at the last moment.
"And next year, we're really excited about the first M1 malware that's coming." Screenshot: Apple
Security researcher Patrick Wardle has discovered what may be the first malware optimized for Apple Silicon Macs. The malware, details of which he published this week, involves a Safari adware extension called GoSearch22.
The adware delivers unwanted ads, collects browser data, and modifies browser settings. GoSearch22 is relatively low risk. However, it can result in users being redirected to certain websites or suffering an otherwise impaired browsing experience.
Tim Cook meeting with a Foxconn worker on a previous occasion. Photo: Apple
Apple is reportedly investigating Foxconn regarding concerns that workers at its plants are overworked and underpaid.
Foxconn remains, for better or worse, Apple’s best-known contract manufacturer. While Foxconn, which employs around 1 million people, has far more clients than just Apple, it is most closely associated with the Cupertino tech giant.
Apple has been investigating folding phones for a while. Photo: USPTO/Apple
LG Display is reportedly working on a foldable panel for a future iPhone, Digitimes reports.
The report, which cites industry sources, says that the company is working on a prototype with Apple. However, it is not clear whether LG would be mass-manufacturing the screens for Apple were such a product to come to market.
A long-time Apple engineer and manager left the Apple Car project to work on space tech. Photo: Mihai Paraschiv/Pixabay CC
Benjamin Lyon left Apple after being with the company for 21 years. He worked on a variety of products, but most recently he’d been a senior director in the team working on the Apple Car.
But he’s going to go be a rocket engineer instead.
Luck, coming to Apple TV+, takes a trip to a world of good and bad luck to discover there are more powerful things than luck. Photo: Apple/Skydance Animation
Apple TV+ and Skydance Animation inked a deal that will see two new movies and a series released on the streaming video service. The upcoming films for children are Luck and Spellbound. Plus, Apple signed up for two seasons of The Search for WondLa.
The Brydge 10.2 Max+ turns an iPad 8 into a detachable laptop/tablet. Photo: Brydge
Brydge has a new feature-laden keyboard case for the low-cost 10.2-inch iPad. It brings a large trackpad to this tablet. And the Brydge 10.2 Max+ offers 4-foot MIL-STD drop protection thanks to a built-in Otterbox case.
This company’s keyboards for the iPad Pro are aimed at professionals. The newest one for the low-cost iPad seems to be for younger users.
Despite its high cost, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is the most popular 5G model in the US. Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac
Americans are united about one thing: the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Market research from two different sources finds that the Apple’s super-size handset is the most popular 5G phone in the US.
Shad Ahmad's straightforward setup centers on a MacBook Pro and 32-inch monitor. Photo: Shahid Ahmad
Shad Ahmad was a hard-studying freshman majoring in biology and minoring in history at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
Going home to continue classes for a semester remotely from his parents’ house in Wisconsin may not have been ideal, but Ahmad found a comforting upside. Integrated smart technology makes his life easier, he told Cult of Mac.
Apple’s second trailer for its Apple TV+ Billie Eilish documentary, The World’s A Little Blurry, shows off a bit more of what fans can expect from the upcoming film.
The documentary, which Apple reportedly paid $25 million to acquire, will debut on Apple TV+ later this month, February 26. It features footage of Eilish and her brother, Finneas O’Connell, growing up, as well as recording some of their smash hits.
According to new figures by IDC, 2020 is the first year in which Google’s Chrome OS was found on more new computers sold than macOS.
That’s due to the success of Chromebooks made by the likes of Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. While no figures are given, it seems likely that these now outsell Macs.
Warren Buffett is one of Apple's biggest cheerleaders. Photo: CNBC
Berkshire Hathaway — the investment firm belonging to Warren Buffett, one of Apple’s biggest cheerleaders in recent years — reduced its stake in the Cupertino tech giant last quarter.
According to a regulatory filing made this week, in Q4 2020, Berkshire Hathaway cut 6% of its Apple shares. By contrast it kept its Amazon shares steady, while growing its stake in T-Mobile by a massive 117%.
The battle between Apple and Fortnite maker Epic Games continues as Epic is appealing to European Union antitrust regulators to take action, Reuters reports Wednesday.
The report notes that Epic is turning to Europe after “failing to make headway” in the United States. The EU already has multiple antitrust investigations ongoing involving Apple. These concern the App Store and Apple Pay, both of which they are concerned show Apple abusing its marketplace position.
These royalties are for historical payments to artists whose information was harder to find. Photo: Apple
Apple has paid out a massive $163,338,890 in “accrued historical unmatched royalties” for Apple Music. That’s more than any other streaming music service, including Spotify, which currently leads the overall global market share.
The Mechanical Licensing Collective received a total of $424.3 million in these historical royalties. Variety notes this means some songwriters and publishers will receive a big “windfall.”
The Apple portable that never was. Photo: Action Retro
Long before we all started carrying around powerful computers in our pockets, there was the tiny Toshiba Libretto. A game-changing device when it arrived in the 1990s, the Libretto downsized the entire Windows PC experience into a subnotebook the size of a paperback.
As the world’s smallest commercially available Windows PC, it certainly proved revolutionary. The only problem is the Libretto was … well, a Windows PC.
YouTuber Action Retro recently set out to right that wrong with an awesome Hackintosh project. After transforming the diminutive Libretto into a miniature Mac, he spoke with Cult of Mac about the experience (and his love of vintage Macs).
Instagram content creator Matt Tran runs his MacBook Pro with an ultrawide screen and a portable one for different reasons. Photo: Matt - Instagram @nvzion
Austin, Texas-based photographer Matt Tran initially built his impressive setup to share his pics on Instagram, and you can certainly see a lot of them there. But now he uses his workstation, centered on a MacBook Pro and two monitors of vastly different sizes, to film and edit videos.
“I like having the 38-inch [LG] ultrawide to view the timeline on Final Cut Pro and the smaller, 15.6-inch Desklab portable monitor to review the footage,” he told Cult of Mac.
It only took a year after its iPhone debut. Photo: Apple
Almost exactly one year after it arrived on iPhone, Microsoft’s unified Office app is now finally available for iPad. The app combines Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in one single package.
That means that all your documents are in one place, and you don’t need to switch between apps depending on whether you’re editing a text document or using a spreadsheet.